A 17-year-old boy who is mostly non-verbal and has no phone with him vanished from his Wood Village home, and Multnomah County authorities are asking the public to help find him before nightfall turns the search more dangerous. Zahir Varona was last seen at his home on the 1100 block of Northeast 239th Place, and anyone who spots him is asked to call 911 immediately.
The Multnomah County Sheriff's Office reported that Varona is Hispanic, stands 5 feet 9 inches tall, and has a medium build, short black hair, and brown eyes, according to KATU. He was last seen wearing a black sweater, Star Wars pajama pants and Converse sneakers. Deputies described him as a missing, endangered autistic teen and said he enjoys going on walks, a detail that could matter if he wandered farther than his neighborhood on foot.
A Search Area Barely One Square Mile Wide
Wood Village is a tiny city, covering just 0.94 square miles wedged between Fairview, Troutdale, and Gresham, with a population of 4,387 residents as of the 2020 Census, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That means a teenager on foot could cross into a neighboring jurisdiction within minutes. TriMet bus lines 21 and 77 run along nearby NE Halsey Street and NE Glisan Street, offering direct routes into Gresham and Portland that a wandering pedestrian could potentially access, per the City of Wood Village.
Roughly 44% to 47% of Wood Village residents identify as Hispanic or Latino, according to 2024 Census Bureau estimates cited by Census Reporter, reflecting the community demographics Varona's family and neighbors share. The city was also the site of a deadly parking lot shooting at the local Fred Meyer this past June, a reminder that Multnomah County Sheriff's deputies have handled major incidents here before.
Why Autism and Elopement Raise the Stakes
National data helps explain why searches like this one move so urgently. Roughly 49% of children on the autism spectrum attempt to wander or elope from safe supervision, a rate nearly four times higher than their unaffected siblings, according to a study published in Pediatrics and highlighted by the National Autism Association. Accidental drowning accounts for more than 70% of lethal outcomes in missing autistic elopement cases, followed by fatal traffic accidents, the same organization has found.
Those statistics are why guidance from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children urges searchers to check hidden, quiet spots and nearby water first when looking for a missing non-verbal autistic person, while avoiding loud sirens or shouting that could cause sensory overload and make the individual avoid searchers or fail to respond to their name. Multnomah County itself operates as a designated Community Developmental Disabilities Program under Oregon Medicaid, funding crisis response and support services for residents with autism and intellectual disabilities, though it remains unclear what role, if any, that infrastructure is playing in this specific search.
Search Resources Available in East Multnomah County
East Multnomah County searches like this one can draw on MCSO SAR, a volunteer-based nonprofit working under sheriff's deputies whose searchers logged more than 24,000 volunteer hours in 2023. The sheriff's office also maintains a rapid-response unit known as the Green Hornets, made up of deputies with advanced outdoor and tracking skills who deploy immediately for hasty searches while larger volunteer teams assemble, according to the Oregon Knowledge Bank. Oregon agencies additionally have the option of issuing an Endangered Missing Person Advisory for individuals endangered by mental or physical disabilities, including non-verbal autism, when a case does not meet the strict abduction criteria required for an AMBER Alert.
It is not yet known whether an advisory has been issued statewide for Varona, or whether Green Hornets, broader search and rescue teams, K-9 units, or drones have been deployed in the search. This is not the first time East Multnomah County has mobilized around a missing, endangered resident; Hoodline previously covered a search for a missing teen in nearby Fairview and Troutdale, and reported separately on a search for an endangered missing Fairview woman. Anyone with information on Zahir Varona's whereabouts is urged to call 911 right away.
